69 cases related to food quality lodged at DAOs

Hetauda, May 20

Regional Food Technology and Quality Control Office, Hetauda, has filed as many as 69 cases related to foodstuffs with district administration offices so far this fiscal.

A total of 40 cases related to food was registered at the offices last fiscal. Of the cases, Makawanpur records the highest number at 27 while Sarlahi received eight, Bara 19, Sindhuli and Rautahat three each and Parsa nine.

Of them, the largest number of cases or 19 are related to cooking oil and ghee. Likewise, there are eight cases related to dairy products, four each related to water and fruits and three related to the feed industry, according to Office Chief Raj Kumar Rijal.

According to Rijal, of the 472 samples of foodstuff sent for testing, 54 (11.4 per cent) was found to be inedible. He said there were no food inspectors in Bara and Sindhuli districts. “As a result, we have to manage staff from the Hetauda regional office and human resource crunch has also hit monitoring,” he said.

The office is all set to launch a three-day awareness programme with the slogan ‘Our concern: freshness and quality in foodstuffs’. As per schedule, the office conducted sanitation and press meet today.

The district monitoring units of Chitwan, Parsa, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari and Dhanusha are set to conduct awareness programmes tomorrow, besides conducting elocution competition, among other activities, in the schools of Birgunj and Hetauda.

The office is scheduled to conduct an interaction among consumers, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and organisations working for the welfare of consumer rights, journalists and civil servants on the quality of foodstuffs and establish a food quarantine unit in Birgunj on Tuesday, said Rijal.

The regional office looks after Makawanpur, Bara, Parsa, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Sindhuli, Chitwan, Dhanusha and Mahottari districts.